


Take On The World

by total_theatre_nerd



Category: The Halcyon (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 17:08:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11925396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/total_theatre_nerd/pseuds/total_theatre_nerd
Summary: 'Nobody knows you the way that I know you. Look in my eyes, I will never desert you. And just say the word, we'll take on the world.'The war changes you.Adil had heard that saying an infinite number of times before he had gone off to fight. But he hadn't understood what the words meant, not really. No one does. Not until you're there.





	Take On The World

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone should listen to the song Take On The World by You Me at Six which is where this title and the lyrics in the summary came from. It's a beautiful song.

The war changes you.

Adil had heard that saying an infinite number of times before he had gone off to fight. But he hadn't understood what the words meant, not really. No one does. Not until you're there.

Telling his family that he was enlisting had been hard. They didn't understand why he wanted to go and risk his life for a country that they said wasn't even his. But Adil had known no other world, not like his parents and older sister who had cherished memories of India. He didn't have that. For him, London was his home. It was hard to convince them of the reasons, because he found it difficult to put into words. And he couldn't tell them everything.

His mum and sister had cried and then his little brother started too, although he was too young to really understand. Adil hadn't visited them much the past few years since he had started at The Halcyon, and they had been elated to see him on their doorstep. Until he had explained why he was there. Then their joy morphed quickly into despair.

But no matter how hard telling his family was, it was nothing compared to telling Toby. After everything that happened, it was hard to say goodbye. He told Toby one night as they lay in bed in his flat. Even staying here in this small and cramped room was hard. He knew it was hard for Toby too, who's breath still hitched every time he walked in, his gaze lingering a bit too long on the bed, and Adil knew he was picturing him lying there, hands on his heart and eyes closed. Everything here just brought him pain. There was nothing to stay for.

“Toby,” he started. 

“Hmm,” he mumbled in reply, his fingers moving softly over the bare skin of Adil's hip, tracing patterns.

They had fallen into bed earlier that night the way they always seemed to lately – a tangle of limbs and harsh kisses, a raw need and desperation to be together, to feel something. It was not gentle, not the way it had been in Toby's hotel room where they went slow and took the time to worship each other.

As Adil looked across at the lazy smile on Toby's face he found himself thinking that maybe now wasn't the right time. But if Adil was waiting for the perfect opportunity then he would be waiting forever. Now was as good a time as any, he supposed.

“I'm enlisting.”

“You're what?”

“I’m going off to France to fight.”

Toby's hand stilled for a moment before he let out a harsh breath and small chuckle, restarting the movement. 

“That's not funny,” he said, looking over at Adil. But something must have shown on his face because the smile fell from Toby’s and he shuffled to sit up, pulling Adil with him.

“No.”

“I'm not joking Toby. I'm leaving next week.”

“No.” Toby snapped, shaking his head and shaking his head.

Adil placed a hand on Toby’s cheek and watched as he closed his eyes, tears beginning to escape.

“I have to go,” Adil whispered, and Toby's eyes snapped open.

“Why?” he asked, his voice and heart breaking all at once.

“The Halcyon’s gone. I have no job, no income. And I can't stay here.”

“Adil, please. I can help you get work, I'm well connected I can – ”

“Toby stop. I need to go. After everything that happened… I need to feel like I'm doing something good, that I'm doing everything I can to help the war effort. What I did… giving him secrets when I didn't even know what they were. I'm disgusted in myself. I need to repent for my sins.”

Toby started shaking his head again and grabbed both of Adil’s hands, intertwining their fingers as if it would stop him from leaving.

“You don't have to do this, please. I – I need you. I don't know what I'll do when you're gone.”

“You'll work it out Toby. You don't need me,” Adil said sadly, knowing how true the words were. Toby was with him just now but Adil was the first man he had ever been with. Toby didn't need him holding him back and tying him down. There was a small part of Adil that still thought Toby was maybe only with him now because of the guilt. So that he won't try to kill himself again. No matter how many times Toby tried to convince him that he was there because he loved him, Adil had his doubts.

“This is my fault,” Toby mumbled, tears freely falling down his face now. Adil was almost crying himself.

“No –” Adil started, but Toby cut him off.

“It is. What I said to you that night you tried to… tried to… the night of the bomb. I don't know what else to say to make you believe that I didn't mean it.”

“I believe you.”

“Then why are you still trying to die?”

Silence fell over them for a beat. Two beats. Adil looked into Toby's eyes and saw nothing but pain and anguish and it made his heart hurt. He had never thought telling him would be this hard. He should've known Toby would find some way to blame himself.

“That's not what this is,” Adil retorted.

“Really? Because I know that many of the men who go out there don't make it back,” Toby snapped, yanking his hands from Adil's and throwing the covers off, getting up from the bed. He started pacing back and forth, every few seconds a hand coming up to run through his unruly hair.

“Toby I don't know what to say. I have to do this,” Adil said, hearing the desperation in his own voice. “However hard this is for you, I can tell you that it's a thousand times harder for me.”

At that Toby stopped and he looked at Adil. He just stood and stared. Then it was as if something snapped and he took two large strides over to the bed and collapsed onto Adil, pulling him into his arms.

He was openly sobbing now, and Adil just clutched tighter as he too started crying.

Toby pulled back slightly from the embrace and placed his hands on either side of Adil’s face, a gesture he had done many, many times before. But this was different. His eyes were darting all over Adil’s face and Adil knew what he was doing. Toby was trying to memorise him.

So Adil did the same. He looked into Toby’s eyes, which were just now filled with tears but they were no less beautiful. He reached up his own hands and traced over Toby’s features – his ears, his cheekbones, down to his shoulders, and back up to move a finger over his lips. When he moved his finger away Toby took a deep breath and crashed his lips onto Adil's. It was a kiss full of pain and desperation, salty from the tears.

Adil kissed Toby. He pulled Toby tighter against him and tried to ingrain this in to his memory. He knew that he would need this – he would need these memories to get through whatever hell he was thrown into.

They pulled back, both breathing heavily. Toby placed his forehead against Adil's and tightened his grip on Adil’s shoulders. He closed his eyes and took a deep, shaky breath.

“Please, promise you'll come back to me,” Toby whispered, and Adil felt a piece of his heart break off at those words. He knew it would stay with Toby no matter how far he went.

“I'm sorry Toby but I can't. I'm sorry.”

And they both sat there sobbing, unable to let go of each other. That was when Adil realised that loving someone gave you the power to destroy them.

\--------

Memories of Toby were what kept Adil sane. He just had to close his eyes and Toby would appear in his dreams. The war was more brutal and ruthless than he had ever thought it would be. When things would get unbearable and the screams and cries and sounds of gunfire and explosions threatened to overwhelm him he would close his eyes and picture Toby, eyes crinkling and the playful grin on his face.

But over time Adil felt the memory fading – he had no pictures of Toby, nothing to make it clearer. He held on as best he could, and when he had been lying there, screaming and screaming from the agonising pain, when he was sure he had been ripped apart, when he threw up from the pain and wished he would just die already, the last thing he thought about before he fell unconscious was Toby.

When he returned to England after almost two years he found himself feeling like a stranger in streets which he used to know like the back of his hand. The place looked different – buildings which used to stand tall now reduced to piles of rubble. People who had been his friends and neighbours no longer there.

It no longer felt like home. But the battlefields and horrific living quarters where he had spent long, long months weren’t home either. And the small flat (even tinier than the one he had before he left) felt like no more than a building to try and sleep under, when he could sleep. He was homeless and jobless and a completely different person in a completely different city. The war had completely, irrevocably and irreversibly changed everything for him. He didn’t even look the same anymore. He didn’t belong anywhere. He had nowhere on this earth that he could call home.

So he took himself to the one place he thought would bring him comfort. It had been their place. A place they would visit under the cover of darkness and just be themselves. Or even during the day they would go and wander around the lake, just talking. It was a place that held so many good memories for Adil, and he hoped that maybe getting to replay them in his mind would push some of the horrible memories away.

Hyde Park was a large, open space. But Adil found himself standing next to a clump of trees that would mean nothing to anyone else. Only he and Toby knew the significance. Although the winter wind was chilly and his breath left whispers in the air it was so cold Adil stood there for over an hour. He smiled to himself as he relived memories, not just from the park, but from the very first moment he had seen Toby.

Adil had thought about seeking him out when he returned, but had almost immediately buried the idea. It had been years. Toby had probably forgotten about him, moved on. Perhaps he was even married now, going back to hiding his true self for the sake of his family name and honour. They had written a few times after Adil had left. But soon Adil found himself staring at an empty sheet of paper not knowing what to say. So often it would just be an ‘I’m still alive’ message, and when Toby stopped replying Adil wasn’t surprised. Slightly hurt, but not surprised.

So he didn’t want to go and find him, only to have his heart broken because Toby couldn’t care less about him. And besides, he had even less to offer Toby now than he had before, which was saying something. Toby deserved a whole lot more than a scarred, broken and damaged soldier.

Instead, he lent against one of the trees and closed his eyes, picturing Toby standing in front of him.

“Adil,” he heard, so clear and distinct it was almost as if Toby was right there.

“Adil, is that really you?” he heard Toby say, utter surprise in his voice. Adil snapped his eyes open, and sure enough there Toby was, standing smiling at him looking like an angel. Adil’s eyes moved quickly over his face, hungrily taking in every detail. Adil thought Toby looked even more beautiful than he had the day that he left. He was smiling now. A bright, elated smile that crinkled his eyes.

“Toby,” he breathed out, starting to reach a hand out towards him before aborting the movement and pulling back.

“You came back to me,” Toby cried, although the joy he was feeling was palpable. He let out a quick laugh, and the sound was the most beautiful thing Adil had heard in a long, long time.

Adil had thought he had come to terms without the fact that he would never see Toby again. But now he realised that he had never let Toby go, not really.

“What are you doing here?” Adil laughed out, not quite believing that Toby was actually there, standing an arm’s length in front of him.

“Me? What are _you_ doing here?”

“I was injured. They sent me back.”

“Injured? Are you okay?” Toby asked, his eyes scanning all over Adil to try and find what was wrong with him. But he wouldn’t be able to – Adil made sure that none of his scarring was visible when he left the house. He pulled his scarf tighter around his neck and fiddled with his gloves, and Toby’s eyes caught the movement.            

“What happened?” Toby asked, concern evident in his voice.

But Adil just shook his head as he felt the lump build up in his throat.

Toby seemed to understand though because he did not press any further, and for a moment they both just stood staring at each other.

“I can’t believe you’re here. Why didn’t you come and find me?” Toby asked, and although he was beaming at Adil with the smile that had pierced Adil’s mind during his hardest times, the hurt in his voice was still evident.

“I didn’t know where to look,” Adil replied quietly, averting his gaze as the lie left his mouth. He had returned to where The Halcyon used to stand. But it had not been rebuilt, not whilst there was so much else that needed to be done. Adil had stood there for a long time, wondering what had become of everyone. Had Tom found work elsewhere? What about Emma, where was she now? Still with her father? Still with Freddie? He found himself dreaming up scenarios for all of them, ones where they were all whole and happy. But he knew they were just fantasies, much like the ones he used to fall into where he and Toby could have a future together. But no matter how long he basked in those dreams he would always have to return to the real world, where a future of any kind for the two of them was simply not plausible. So yes, he had returned. And yes, a woman told him where he would be able to find the Hamilton family. But Adil never used the information.  

“That’s a load of rubbish, I bet you didn’t even try. Everyone around where The Halcyon used to be knows where we moved to. It wouldn’t have been hard,” Toby retorted, anger seeping into his voice and the smile slipping from his face.

“I thought you would have moved on. I couldn’t have seen you with someone else. It would be impossible to bear,” Adil murmured in reply, and although Toby was there, an arm’s length away, he still felt out of reach. How was Adil meant to explain? That the thought of Toby being with someone else – man or woman – made him sick to his stomach. That when he returned home instead of crying tears of relief he cried tears of loss – for the loss of who he had been before, of what they could have had. Even before he had left the chances of them lasting any significant time were close to zero.

Adil was standing there with the overwhelming urge to reach out and touch Toby, to feel him under his hand, to sense that he was real and actually _there_. But he held himself back and he could feel the want rippling out of him in waves, was almost certain that Toby could feel it. Though he made no attempt to reach out to Adil himself. So Adil held himself back, and they both stood there, staring, their chests moving up and down with their heavy breathing.

“There’s no one else,” Toby said quietly, and Adil felt his heart skip a beat.

“You mean you haven’t…” he started to ask, trailing off as he took in the look on Toby’s face. It was one he had seen many times, before. One that said 'How could you be so stupid?'

“There’s been nobody else but you,” Toby pressed, taking a step closer and causing Adil to step backwards, pressing into the tree. Adil felt his heart beating, so quick and pulsing it felt like it was going to leap out of his chest. And this was the first time in so long that Adil’s heart rate had sped up for something other than overwhelming fear.

“Toby… I –”

“I waited for you,” Toby cut him off, a hint of desperation leaking out of his voice. Adil felt tears well up in his eyes and he closed them, taking a deep, shaky breath.

“I didn’t think you would. You stopped writing,” he whispered, voicing the one thing that had cemented the thought in his mind that Toby no longer cared.

“Okay you have to listen to me, let me explain this. Okay?” Toby asked, and Adil opened his eyes to find Toby’s right in front of him, staring right back. They still weren’t touching. There were places though were Adil would only have to move an inch to have some contact. But he resisted the urge and just nodded in return.

“I knew that you coming back to me was against all odds, but it was a chance I had to take. When you first left, I was a mess. Freddie and my mother tried to figure out what was wrong with me but I wouldn’t speak to them, I couldn’t have told them. Every time a letter came my heart would speed up and I would pray that it was from you. It didn’t matter what you had written, but just to know you were still alive, to see your handwriting on that paper, it gave me an all-encompassing feeling of relief and joy. But then mother realised I was in a much better mood after receiving some letters, so she took it upon herself to start checking them.”

Adil felt a pit in his stomach as his mind raced back to try and think of what he had written, but he couldn’t remember a lot and so much had happened since then. He had made sure to never sign his name, he wasn’t that stupid. But he was sure that some things he had written had been rather… insinuating.

“She came to my room one day, a letter clutched in her hand. And she read out a line to me, something you had written. I remember it even now. I think that I reread all of your letters a thousand times over, I wouldn’t be surprised if I could quote them all back to you word for word. You didn’t write much, nothing too incriminating or anything that could implicate me. But the line that had transfixed her was the last one you had written. It said ‘Each new day that dawns brings suffering and pain too great to even begin to describe to you. But every morning that I wake having dreamt of you also brings a hope that one day I will see you again.’ She never explicitly said what I knew she was thinking, but from then on if you wrote any more letters I didn’t receive them. And although I wrote back to you and passed it along to a friend to send I knew that you moved around a lot, and that without you writing to me I would have no chance of contacting you again. And so I fell into a despair not knowing if you were alive. And my dreams were haunted with ghosts of us and of you. Often I would wake with dried tear tracks on my face and I knew that until you came back I would never be the same.”

Adil didn’t know what to say. He soaked up the words and felt them penetrate deep inside of him. Toby’s voice had always calmed him, and the way he spoke was just so inherently Toby that it felt like a welcoming embrace to hear it again.

“On days where I was feeling particularly heavy I would come here, and I would sit down at the foot of this tree, close my eyes, and pretend that you were sitting next to me. So when I wandered over here today, and saw you standing there… I thought that I had finally gone mad. That you were a figment of my imagination, a manifestation of my grief,” Toby stopped as his voice trembled. And he did what Adil had been longing for since he had first opened his eyes and saw him standing there. He reached out a hand and cupped Adil’s face, and Adil’s eyes fluttered closed at the contact. This gesture, one that was still so natural even after all this time, awoke something in Adil that he had been missing since the day he had said goodbye.

“But you’re here,” Toby cried, although upon opening his eyes Adil saw the smile was back on Toby’s face.

“I never thought that you would wait for me,” Adil exclaimed in disbelief, his own smile settling on his face.

“Adil I love you,” Toby pressed, and the words flowed over Adil and settled deep in his heart. But the elation and giddiness evaporated almost as quickly as it appeared, as Adil remembered all the reasons he hadn’t sought Toby out in the first place. He was different now – twisted and broken and not someone who deserved Toby. Not that he had ever deserved him.

“Loved.” Adil stated, and he saw the confusion on Toby’s face as his hand fell away from his face.

“What?” Toby asked incredulously.

“I’m not the same anymore. I’ve changed, in so many ways, ways you could barely even begin to understand,” Adil tried to explain, but Toby just sighed.

“I want to understand Adil. I want to get to know the new you.”

“I’m a mess,” Adil whispered in response, shaking his head. Why could Toby not see it? Why did he not understand?

“It’s okay,” Toby stressed, reaching up to wipe away the tears that were falling steadily down Adil’s face.

“I’m broken Toby.”

Sometimes Adil felt like he had been shattered into a million different pieces, and that parts of him had been left over on that battlefield.

“Then I will help fix you. Please…” Toby begged as reached out to touch Adil’s arm, but Adil pulled away quickly, talking a few steps away from the tree, his gaze darting around the park.

“We can’t. Not here. Are you busy? Do you have time to come back to my place?” he asked.

The idea of having Toby in his room, in an enclosed space, no one else around to see… It made Adil feel extremely nervous but strangely a sense of calm seemed to engulf him and push it away.

“Yes, of course. Of course I’ll come,” Toby replied quickly, smiling apprehensively up at Adil.

Adil let out a quick and short breath before nodding and gesturing Toby to follow him.

\-------

His new place was quite similar to his old one, although significantly smaller and a bit shabbier. But there were no ghosts of the past here.

Toby walked in and went to sit down on the bed, glancing around the room. Not that there was much to see.

“Does your family know you’re home?” Toby asked, breaking the silence that they had fallen into.

“Yes. I stayed with them for a while, when I came back,” Adil answered, turning away from Toby and taking his gloves off, making sure that his hands were not visible from where Toby was sitting.

“How long?” Toby probed, and Adil’s hand shook slightly as he pulled his jacket off, revealing a long sleeved top underneath.

“I’ve been in London about a month,” Adil admitted, a lump forming in his throat as he unwrapped the scarf from his neck. It was far too hot in here to keep wearing it, no matter how much he wanted to.

“A month? God Adil, you should’ve come to me,” Toby said and Adil knew he was irritated. And he had every right to be. If the roles had been reversed Adil knew that he would’ve been mad.

“I’m sorry,” Adil breathed out quietly, but he could feel the tears starting to form and could only manage a weak whisper.

“Adil. What’s wrong?” he heard Toby ask. After a moment he heard the bed creak as Toby’s weight was lifted off of it, and the footsteps as he walked over to where Adil was standing.

Adil couldn’t help it. He curled in on himself and flinched away when Toby reached out a hand in comfort.

“Why won’t you let me touch you? Why won’t you touch me?” Toby stammered, and Adil knew that he was going to have to tell him. To show him.

Adil let out a shuddering breath and moved so he was facing Toby, his hands moving from where they had been hidden.

He heard Toby gasp as he took in the state of them. The skin was unrecognisable, it had blistered over and was scarred and wrinkled. Toby’s glance then moved up to his neck where the same burns were visible snaking around the right hand side. Adil thought of how the whole upper half of his body (bar his face, thank God) was like that. His hands, his arms, his chest and his neck, his stomach and hips and the top of one of his legs as well. He was hideous.

He closed his eyes and waited for Toby to stutter out an excuse and run away, but instead he felt a hand softly grab his and he jerked away in surprise. He turned his gaze to stare at Toby who was looking at him with tears in his eyes.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to hurt or scare you. Please, can I hold your hand?” he asked.

Adil nodded, a lump in his throat making it impossible to speak. He felt the tears start to flow as Toby once again took his hand, a movement that was slow and careful and nothing that he had ever expected.

“Look in my eyes,” Toby whispered, and Adil looked up at him.

“I’ll never desert you. I won’t pretend to know what you’ve been through, but I promise that I will be here, for whatever you need.”

Adil didn't think Toby would ever stop surprising him. He could tell that Toby wanted to know. It’s what everyone asked when they saw. It was why Adil wore long sleeves and thanked God that it was winter so he could wrap up in his scarf to hide the burns on his neck.

But he wouldn’t ask. Adil knew he wouldn’t. For fear of making Adil panic and bolt, or for bringing back bad memories. And that was why Adil loved him. Still loved him.

“It was a bomb,” Adil whispered, his heart started to beat quicker and quicker as he thought of that day.

“Adil you don’t have to tell me.”

“It’s okay. I want to.”

“It was a bomb. I was with another soldier, Joshua. And we weren’t expecting anything. We were just walking and then… and then…” Adil gripped Toby’s hand tighter and watched as Toby went to reach out before wavering, his hand stopping in mid-air, not sure if he could touch Adil or not.

Adil took a deep breath and, with only a second of hesitation, moved his body so his shoulder was under Toby’s arm. Toby wasted no time shuffling closer and pulling Adil tight. Adil had missed this. And he found that being with Toby felt safe. Toby’s arms were the first thing to feel like home since he had left.

Adil told him everything – about the explosion that had come out of nowhere. Looking around in the panic and confusion and seeing Joshua’s body in pieces, parts scattered around him. The feeling that his whole body was on fire, the flames eating him whole. How he had eventually passed out from the pain. Waking up in the hospital and wondering how he was still alive. The recovery. The torturous recovery that made him throw up from the pain almost every day and that make him feel weaker and weaker instead of like he was getting better. The day the doctor told him that they had done all they could for the burns – that he would be like this forever. That there was nothing more they could do. That half his body was going to remain mangled and mutilated. How he cried himself to sleep that night wondering if being dead would have been better. The guilt he felt immediately after thinking that because so many men were dead. Joshua was dead. And he was alive, no matter the state he was in. He was alive. And the only thing to get him through the whole ordeal had been Toby. Thoughts of Toby had kept him going.

He cried and he cried and he cried. And Toby just held him close. Running a comforting hand through his hair or on his back and letting him break down. And when he had calmed down enough that the only sound piercing the silence was the occasional sniffle, Toby only said one thing.

“You are still the most beautiful man in the world to me. And I would like to be with you, if you’ll let me.”

So slowly Adil let Toby build him back up. Piece by little piece. And he felt like a person again, like there was more to life than just surviving. He was living again. They spent as much time as they could together, as if making up for the years lost to the war. Adil had plenty of bad days, and nightmares and flashbacks and times where he would almost pass out from crying and panicking so much. But Toby was always there. And soon enough they fell back into a routine. It was different to before – but was that really a bad thing? There wasn’t as much sneaking around and no threats or blackmail or nosy family members to avoid in hallways. It was just Toby and Adil in the little flat. And to Adil it was the most perfect place in the world.

It took Adil a while before he was comfortable being intimate with Toby again. But Toby didn’t push or complain or pressurise him in any way, and Adil felt himself falling deeper and deeper in love with him every day.

Their first few moments were fully clothed, desperate kisses and hands pulling hair like horny teenagers. But once they had started it was as if a wall had been demolished and it wasn’t long before Adil was once again undressing Toby – something that he had dearly missed. He took his time to worship him, to relearn everything there was to know about his body and to pull gasps and moans from him as he came undone underneath his hands. To Adil there was nothing in this world more beautiful. Adil knew that Toby didn’t particularly like being completely naked when Adil was still fully clothed, but he didn’t complain. And more than once Adil declined Toby’s invitations and had instead retreated to the bathroom to take care of himself. He would emerge feeling ashamed and inept, words about how Toby deserved better on his lips, ready to be spoken into existence. But Toby would just grab his hand, pull him over to the bed and lie with him, hand stroking through his hair whispering I love you’s and insisting that it made no difference to him.

When he finally built up the courage to show Toby everything, to put himself bare in front of him, Toby responded with nothing but care and love. He touched Adil all over, gently, and never stopped telling him how beautiful he was.

The war changes you. In obvious ways, visible ways - like the scarred tissue Adil had to carry around or the flashbacks that caused him to drop to the ground with his hands over his head every time he heard a loud bang. It also changes you in subtle ways that only people who had known you extremely well before would realise – the way Adil couldn’t sleep against the wall anymore for the fear of being boxed in, or how he was quieter than before. Not by much, but he would retreat into his own mind every once in a while.

But it also changed something for Adil that turned out to be fairly good. It had changed his relationship with Toby and now they were stronger than ever. Adil didn’t know what would have happened if he hadn’t gone away, but from the way they were acting before he left and that path that they were headed down… he knew it was unlikely it would’ve turned out anything like this.

Adil had given Toby his heart and Toby had taken care of it as if it were his own. Toby had never once wavered or got mad or angry, and all his actions did were convince Adil of what he had known since before he had left for the war all those years ago. He was completely, irrevocably and irreversibly in love with Toby Hamilton.

**Author's Note:**

> This turned out a lot more heart breaking than I had planned it to...
> 
> As always thanks for reading, comments and kudos are much appreciated :)


End file.
